The 20-year-old investor who found fame this year when he made $110 million trading shares of troubled retailer Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. BBBY, -5.48%, has turned activist shareholder and is pushing for changes at psychedelics company Mind Medicine Inc.
“Most biotechs are cutting back on spending and trying to conserve cash in a bear market, while MindMed is increasing its cash spending,” Freeman told MarketWatch in an interview. FCM says MindMed needs to drastically reduce the development time for two of its key product candidates, dubbed MM-110 and MM-120. Both are forms of LSD with the former currently in a trial as a treatment for opioid-use disorder and the latter as a treatment for anxiety.
MindMed CEO Barrow disputes that claim. “There is no basis for the claim that we could skip our Phase 2 study for MM-120 and go directly to Phase 3,” he told MarketWatch. “Doing so runs several risks, including Phase 3 failure given we would not have identified an optimal dose, the FDA rejection of our new drug application even after a successful trial, and delays, assuming — as is likely — the FDA were to reject our proposal to go directly into a Phase 3 program.
“They have no bearing on the company today. Importantly, FCM’s statements about our intellectual property for our lead program, MM-120, are unfounded. We have not given away any intellectual property rights to our drug candidate.” “Cash is at a premium in the bear market, so we want to get in while the company still has cash and we can get a good management plan in place,” said Freeman.
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